Newsletter

Most patients will be aware that there have been a lot of changes in our clinical and administrative staff over the last 2 years. This has been due to retirements, resignations, staff going on to pastures new and existing staff moving into different roles. We have been fortunate to be able to recruit new partners and practice nurses when other practices are still struggling and after unsettling periods for patients and practice staff we now have a full compliment of clinical and administrative staff to support you with your health care needs.

Across the country GP surgeries are experiencing increasing demand which is putting pressure on the system. The result is that patients are struggling at times to get appointments. We understand the frustration that this is causing. We are constantly looking at ways to tackle this problem within the financial constraints that we have to work with. Unfortunately it is not as simple as just employing an additional GP.

We would encourage you to look at these additional options as they are designed to ease the pressure on GP surgeries.

Asking at your local chemist for advice on simple ailments/ medication queries

Accessing online advice via NHS Choices

Telephone 111 for advice

Extended access GP appointments – more information below

The most important thing you can do to help us are:

Cancel appointments that you cannot attend or no longer need to make them available for others. As a practice we have approximately 155 unattended appointments per month (information collated by North Tyneside CCG). This equates to 25 hours of doctor and nursing team time – over a day a month!! The effects of these are:

An increase in the waiting time for appointments

Frustration for both staff and patients

Costs the NHS billions of pounds per year

Prevents someone else who is sick to be seen sooner

Keep you mobile number up to date – we can send you a text message to remind you of your appointment

Patients registered with a GP Practice in North Tyneside now have another 1,000 appointments with a doctor (GP), nurse or Health Care Assistants (HCA) available per week. So, for example, if you are busy during the day and can’t get to your doctor, you can now phone your GP practice and ask for an evening appointment (usually up to 7:30pm) or an appointment at other times on a Saturday or Sunday. Some of these appointments are at hubs (or central locations), but they are all provided by local doctors and nurses and they have full access to your patient notes. It saves going somewhere where they don’t have your notes and don’t know who you are. PLEASE REMEMBER these are for booked appointments only.

Help us improve our services: Join our Patient Participation Group:

The aim of the group is for patients and staff to work together to help improve the services that are offered. This group is composed of patients who wish to take a more active interest in the practice and local health services. The current group has 7 members and meets quarterly. If you are interested in joining the group please contact Christine Davidson practice manager on 0191 2381777.

Patient Feedback

If you wish to provide any feedback about the practice you can email Christine Davidson Practice Manager on christine.davidson2@nhs.net

Thank you for your feedback

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